'Rare' Disneyland Hand-Drawn Map Sold at Auction

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Monday, Jun 26, 2017

The world's best-known theme park didn't magically shimmer into existence overnight, nor did a team of cheerful birds and hammer-handy squirrels construct it, while humming, over the course of a happy, song-filled hour. Disneyland took a lot of dreaming, then planning, and, you bet, money, which meant putting concrete ideas down on paper for investors to review.

And one of those pieces of paper, among the most important in the iconic destination's history, is the 1953 map that was co-created by Walt Disney himself, alongside Herb Ryman, "his friend and former employee," over one legendary September weekend. The beautiful and detailed map was sold for $708,000 at auction at Van Eaton Galleries on Ventura Boulevard June 25, 2017 as the centerpiece of a larger Disney-item auction event.